Williams, Boardwalk Announce Marcellus-to-Gulf Coast NGL Pipeline

March 6, 2013

Williams and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, two midstream (pipeline) companies today announced a bold new project to build and repurpose some existing pipelines into a new natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline that will run from the Marcellus and Utica Shale region all the way to the Gulf Coast. The new project, dubbed the Bluegrass Pipeline, would provide an initial 200,000 barrels of NGL capacity per day, expandable to 400,000 barrels. If all goes according to plan, Williams and Boardwalk would like to have the new pipeline online by late 2015.

The JV partners maintain the pipeline is needed because in just a few years the northeast will have too much NGLs and not enough processing capacity to handle it all. MDN heard that argument and its opposite argued at the recent Utica Shale event we attended in Columbus. More analysis about the Williams announcement (and a quick NGL processing primer) from MDN below. First, here’s the press announcement today from Williams and Boardwalk, including a rough map of the route: